No Witnesses

I wake up in the morning with people talking loudly and laughing on the first floor.

I should start the day by absorbing some mana.

I make a circle around me with 6 mana gems and I sit in the middle to meditate. I concentrate for about 30 minutes and I rise putting the gems in the drawer.

I feel like im already close to unlocking my shoulders. Mama always said I had a huge talent makes sense it is progressing fast.

Now that I think about it, I didnt shower, maybe I should ask if there is a bathroom somewhere.

I put on the same clothes Claire gave me and I leave the room going toward the first floor.

It smells a little but nothing I can do, nice clothes are expensive after all.

I arrive on the first floor and I order a meal, mostly bread and water. I buy another day in that room too. I got to learn that there is a bathroom at the back of the inn, I go there, and well... it is in a terrible state, but I need to wash so I use it anyway.

Everything I get now I tend to compare with what I got at Claire's carriage. Thats what Papa meant by gold corrupting the person?

After bathing I got out to the guild, but something seemed strange, as I made my way I felt that im being watched.

Could be my imagination but better safe than sorry.

I enter a badly illuminated alley and I make Penance go into crow form to fly around, I look through Penance's eyes and I see that there is a pair following me, with peasant belted tunics, two guys.

They are coming close to the alley im in, I swiftly run toward the end of the alley and turn to the left hiding myself.

They peek inside the alley trying to not make it obvious but after not seeing me they rush inside to catch me up.

I take them by surprise putting my feet on one of them to trip and I kick the guts of the other one making him fall.

They are just normal peasants, why they are following me?

They are on the ground looking at me with fearful expressions.

"Please dont kill us, they are making us do this" Pleaded one of them

"Who?" I ask apathetically

The other guy seems to be more calm and raises his voice a little.

"Idiot! If you open your mouth we will die anyway" He says with an angry tone

I do not recall doing anything to anger anyone, why would they be keeping watch of me?

"If you will die anyway, choose, die here and now, or die later, at least you two would have time to run I guess" I say apathetically

They chose the second option and talked about a group of criminals that sell drugs and murder for money, they use peasants who are in debt with them to do this type of work.

These two dont know the motivation for them to seek me, but there is only one option, there is something to do with that group I killed in the forest. 

I let these two go, normally I would kill them but I should try not to get myself in trouble with the law.

I call Penance back putting it in sword form and continue to walk toward the guild.

A criminal organization following me huh... If I kill them all it will cause too much of a commotion plus I dont even know if I can, if they are a criminal organization that dominates around here then there must be someone strong enough to lead it.

There is no use thinking about it now.

I arrive at the guild and as soon as I enter I notice something strange, a group of about 8 men wearing slightly better clothes than everyone else and intimidating some people.

The guys who were being intimidated looked at me when I arrived and the group came to me with smug on their faces.

"Yo kid, you killed Isaac and his group?" He asks bluntly

So they came to interrogate me.

"No" I say apathetically

The man in the middle put a rage expression.

"Dont fuck with us! you sold their loot" He says inraged

"As I said before, they kindly sacrificed themselves for the sake of future generations" I say apathetically

He pulls out his sword and rushes at me, I run to the exit, and they are all coming behind me as I run in the street.

I cant fight in front of everyone at the guild, if I kill them all there it will bring too much attention.

I run toward a nearby dark alley and go inside, I go to the end of the alley and I stop.

"Finally stopping there is no use running kid, I dont know how you managed to kill Isaac's group but they got a big debt with us and now that you killed them someone needs to pay" Says the man catching his breath a little

Sigh... so these guys dont plan to stop until I pay it.

I pull my sword and they look a little puzzled but dash at me.

They are not trying to kill me, they just want money so they are trying to immobilize me.

The middle one is slightly stronger but he is underestimating me, the others are just normal people.

I could kill all the normal ones fast and that guy seems fearful now. I guess he notices that he cant beat me.

"If you kill me Krag will come for you" He says fearfully

Krag? What a weird name, so he is the leader. It would be best to torture this guy to learn more but im in the middle of an alley people will notice too fast.

I walk toward him with Penance on a reverse grip, he tries to strike me but I deflect, and he follows up with a kick, I back off to evade and rush at him again, he can barely keep up with my speed as I barrage him with strikes.

I swiftly deflect him and kick his left leg making him lose balance, and in a blink, his head falls with a clean cut on his neck.

This guy is the strongest person I fought until now, his usage of mana is good but I still could beat him relatively easily. I want to acquire battle experience and this is exactly it.

Well then, I will loot their weapons and goods to sell at the guild.

....

I got to the guild loaded with weapons and accessories, my clothes were mostly dirt with blood but I used a spell to clean what I could.

I walk toward the balcony while the room is filled with murmurs and people look at me with fear.

Today the clerk is different, I got there and threw everything on the ground.

"I want to sell these" I say casually while throwing some accessories and pointing at the weapons on the ground.

The clerk seems fearful and asks.

"What happened to those guys?" He asks with a fearful tone

Why do clerks need to ask questions? I dont get it.

"They regretted their actions and out of pity gave me all they loot" I say apathetically

The clerk swallowed dry and I could hear a few laughs around the hall.

In the end, I got to sell everything, I got a decent amount of money.

I choose a mission too, but it is a very low-level one as im alone and my rank is F. People dont want to team up with me now not because im a kid but because they are scared of me or of involving themselves with someone who is fighting against this Krag guy.

The mission was to kill and bring a few pelts of a creature, not hard at all, it was slightly annoying because they could run fast but I managed with a little effort.

I finished it and got back to the inn.

It is afternoon and the sun is almost setting now.

In my room, I meditate to absolve the rest of the mana gems, when I finished I could break through, and now I have my shoulders unlocked.

By the time I finished, it was already night and I made my way toward the first floor to eat dinner.

I sat down and started to read my book on the table waiting for my meal, but apparently, someone was waiting for me.

A bulky tall man, with white skin and a scar on his left cheek, he is bold and wears expensive clothes.

He sits down at my table looking at me calmly but with a hint of angriness, I pretend to be apathetic at his arrival and he speaks.

"Do you know who im?" He asks with a hint of angriness

"No, should I?" I answer bluntly

My answer makes him angrier and he starts to liberate his mana in the air, he is mostly on my level but im still slightly stronger than him.

"Did you kill my people?" He asks

Is this what they call dejavu?

"No, they didnt want to kill a kid so they ran away giving me their loot, I appreciate their kindness" I say apathetically

A vein pops in his forehead and the man is almost breaking the table with his fists.

He rises from his chair and gets out of the inn with an inraged face, he probably doesn't want to fight in a place like this, there are a bunch of people around it would cause too much of a commotion.

I put Penance on crow from underneath the table and make it fly in the night, it is spying on him from the sky, he is walking the street and soon he arrives in an alley with a wooden door, probably his hideout.

My meal arrives, I eat and go out toward his hideout, Penance is still looking at the door so I know he is still inside.

I will cut this tree by the root and end this problem already.

.....

I arrive at the alley and I call Penance making it go into sword form.

The full moon illuminates the night while I slowly walk into the alley.

I slightly knock on the door and hide to see who opens it.

A man with no apparent strength opens to check who it is and I surprise him by piercing his guts, I pull him toward the alley and close the door with me still outside.

I hear some man confused inside and they are coming to check on their friend, I hide this corpse and jump to the roof on the side of the alley to wait for them to come out.

5 guys came outside with puzzled expressions while looking for their friend, I jumped from the roof falling in the middle of them, I fell beheading a guy and the rest took too long to react to what happened and I killed them all silently.

I slowly open the door and I send Penance in crow form to see what is inside. seems to be clean, there is a door leading to an underground facility though.

I enter inside and the place is not very clean at all, there are spider webs everywhere and barrels on the side, a few wood tables, and chairs.

I stealthily make my way toward the door leading to the underground. I open it and there is a stair going down, I send Penance to check.

Penance goes inside, on the end of the stairs there is an open entrance with a big space, some torches for illumination and there are some cages too.

The stones from the walls are forming mosses and are slightly green, leaks on the ceiling and I can see some women inside those cages, they dont look exactly bad though, they are probably peasants who got stuck in debt and had to sell themselves to them so they take good care of their appearance I guess.

I call Penance back and I go down. these women are mostly sleeping so it shouldnt be a problem to pass, or so I thought.

"Krag! Intruser Intruser!" A woman screams out

Sigh... drug addicts, I knew some of them in my last life.

Krag came running slamming a door open and he saw me and put a smile on his face.

"And here I thought I would have to wait until you get out of the city to kill you, you made it easier" He says arrogantly with a smug on his face

He rushes at me but he is slow because of his bulky body, he tries to strike me but I jump behind.

He is slower than me but in physical strength, he surpasses me by a lot, I could feel just from the wind that his punch created when he missed.

I dash at him and try to strike but even though he is slow he has good reflexes allowing him to predict my hit, he tries to counter it with a kick but I can evade.

We are exchanging sequences of blows but no one is hitting each other, this battle will be decided with one hit, no muscle or skin can withstand Penance cut, and my body cant take a single punch from him.

But he is getting impatient with time, he is arrogant after all. I just need to keep my calm and wait.

As I said, soon enough he got more and more impatient and started to scream while fighting to try to destabilize me, he was trying to express confidence but his face told me otherwise, his eyes were fearful. He thought that I could be easily beaten by him, but he is now fearing defeat.

He missed a step and lost balance for a few seconds, it was time. I throw Penance at him making it go into crow form to surprise attack his face, I cast a spell and some chains got out of his shadow piercing through his stomach and attaching him to the ground, he tries to run and forcefully pulls himself out but he is already tired and hurts when he moves.

I call Penance to me putting into sword form.

Sigh... Im tired, I was lucky he made a mistake sooner.

I walk toward him and his expression is pale.

"Wait! Wait, it is money? I can give you money just dont kill me" He pleads

I stop in front of him with an emotionless expression and I cut his head with a clean cut, so clean that his blood didnt get into Penance.

I sheath Penance and walk inside from where Krag came out, seems like it is a room, there is a big bed with a woman scared of me, a drawer, and a desk with notes and a sack of gold on it.

I feel like im being paid to kill more people than monsters, am I really an adventurer?

I take the gold sack and look around to see what I can find, I find some necklaces, jewels, and rings, but nothing really amazing, the sack of gold is loaded though.

The woman in the bed keeps looking at me fearfully while I search the room.

I go to her and I stop on her side, swiftly killing her and making her blood pill on the whole bed.

I got out of the room and went toward the women in those cages, I used a few spells and killed them all, they pleaded a bit but nothing I could do, I dont want anyone knowing about my powers.

No witnesses.